The state of Uttar Pradesh, which just saw assembly elections conclude in March, is now gearing up for municipal polls which will be held in three phases on 22nd, 26th and 29th November respectively. The results would be declared on 1st December.
This time round the Aam Aadmi Party has also entered the fray by announcing its intentions to contest these elections by fielding its candidates across 16 UP civic bodies. As per reports, the party would focus on Varanasi and Gorakhpur districts and according to AAP leaders, would build women toilets in markets, improve infrastructure and education level of government-run schools. They have also promised to reduce house tax if voted to power.
AAP’s pursuit of power now seems to have hit a bit of a roadblock after allegations of the party selling tickets for 40,000 have surfaced.
As per reports [1][2], Praveen Vishwakarma, the party’s candidate for Vidyawati-2 ward has alleged that party leader Gaurav Maheshwari and Sarojini Nagar’s supervisor, Shyam Kumar Singh demanded Rs 40,000 from him for giving him the civic poll ticket.
Vishwakarma has as a result, sent a written complaint to the state election commission regarding this matter and has demanded that the party be barred from contesting the civic polls.
Vishwakarma has reportedly claimed that he had been approached by AAP workers who had requested him to become one of their candidates. He then agreed to the offer and requested that he be given the Vidyawati-3 ward ticket. Later he met with Gaurav Maheshwari and Shyam Kumar Singh who allegedly asked him to pay Rs 40,000 if he wasted the ticket.
Vishwakarma as per reports didn’t agree to it by asserting that he is poor and has been doing social work in his region for many years with the help of donations form locals. Later as per him, AAP declined to give him the ticket and instead gave it to a person named Arvind Singh who had joined the party barely 9 days ago.
But incredibly, the party informed Vishwakarma on Saturday that he has been made the candidate of Vidyawati-2 ward which prompted him to expose the party’s corruption.
The party on the other hand has refuted these allegations by labelling them as politically motivated. As per Gaurav Maheshwari, Vishwakarma has making such allegations after not getting a ticket and has asserted that he would permanently retire from politics if allegations against him are proven.
